Tag: matthew

I’ve been listening to this song a lot. And not just because I found this guy who is kinda cute (and can sing “The Anchor Holds” with some kinda fire), I started listening to this oldie goldie a while back but have just recently REALLY listened to it.

When I first heard this song, I was asked to sing in a group for a homecoming service for a local retired judge. I learned the soprano part assigned to me in 2.7 seconds, did the service, and went on with my life. The song has always just kind of popped up here and there, my papaw would sing it with his southern gospel trio or just here is randomly come on while I was listening to my worship playlist. The significance of the lyrics always hit me in a certain way, but I wasn’t truly affected by them until recently.

A good friend of mine asked me to sing for a talent show, mentioning that I should look up a male judge that would be helping out with the event. So I did. I found multiple videos of this certain young man singing southern gospel songs I had heard all my life. But when I came across him singing this song in particular, I couldn’t bring myself to click on the link. I knew it would be heard to sit and listen to a song that basically told me that God’s got this and that is I hold onto Him I will make it through this, even though I had been telling myself these things for months. I was struggling with these huge mountains and troubling storms for a long time when this cover came into my path and it was almost like my mind was telling me that if I listened to the song I would be letting go of things that needed to be let go of. So I scrolled over the song and went back to diving deeper into a whole that led me further into a batch of oldie goldies but the video kept coming up.

I held off till I was at my lowest, even if I didn’t realize it at the time, and I finally caved. I wasn’t even looking to listen to that certain song, I was actually searching a song from a completely different genre but I guess God has other plans. I clicked on the video and began to listen and it took me back. WAY back. Every lyrics sent me reeling into memories that were harsh and cruel and unwanted but were memories needed, nonetheless. I think my favorite part of the song is the verses of the song, if you aren’t familiar with the song then here are the lyrics:

I have journeyed through the long dark night,Out on the open sea, by faith alone,Sight unknown; and yet his eyes were watching me.

I’ve had visions, I’ve had dreams;I’ve even held them in my hand.But I never knew they would slip right through,Like they were only grains of sand.

I have been young but I’m older now.And there has been beauty these eyes have seen.But it was in the night, through the storms of my life,Oh, that’s where God proved His love for me.

These lyrics really hit hard for me, and each verse seems to really tell a story that comes out of all of our lives. We are desperately in search of something to keep us going, something to hold us firm in our faith. When we feel like no one can see us in the darkness, when dreams fail, or when we see the wonderful things of life or the bad things, He’s there. He’s always watching. And for some reason, I couldn’t get that through my thick skull, that God was seeing my pain and my hurt and was holding me with the toughness and unbelievable strength of an anchor.

Have you have watched a movie about a big boat with a HUGE anchor, and the anchor ends up sinking to the bottom of the sea and NEVER MOVES. All it does is sit there and rust. Also, when the anchor first dropped into that sand in the bottom of the body of water, it kept that ginormous boat in place; no mater the wind, no matter the weight, that boat wasn’t going anywhere.

The anchor holds,Though the ships been battered.The anchor holds,Though the sails are torn.I have fallen on my knees as I face the raging seas.The anchor holds in spite of the storm.

Matthew 7:24-27 says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” and in Hebrews 6, the Bible says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”. God is our heavy, unwavering anchor, that no matter the situation or devastation, He’s there to hold us in place. So what if we get a little beat up along the way, so what if we get pushed and tugged, He’s got us in place, He’s holding us. This scripture says that He is the solid rock on which we stand. He is our hope that hold us, even as we fall.

Earlier this week I tweeted something along the lines of “The moment I gave my mountain to God was the moment I stopped trying to conquer it on my own”, and I didn’t realize just how true that statement was until after I tweeted it. The moment we give our all to God, the moment we let his hold us and take care of whatever is going on in our lives, is the moment that we stop doing all ourselves. That lesson is so simple, we start doing it when we are babies. If I give this bottle back to mom then I don’t have to hold it while I play. It’s as simple as that.

Our God is such a strong God, and He is so willing to help us with whatever it is we have that’s putting the word on our shoulder. He’s got the whole word in His hands, so why do we have to feel like it’s on our shoulders. He doesn’t give us anything that can break us.